


and i love you like never before

by returntosaturn



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, I mean just feels I guess, Quill takes Gamora on a....date....?, Rebuilding, Reuniting, endgame spoilers?, just being friends, post Endgame but doesn't really reference anything that happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-03-01 02:36:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18791266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/returntosaturn/pseuds/returntosaturn
Summary: He laughs a little—because this whole thing was silly, really, to bring an alien girl to a Terran fast food restaurant.“A cheeseburger is always a good place to start,” he says.// Peter and Gamora try to find a foundation.





	and i love you like never before

**Author's Note:**

> So like....I wrote this in a couple hours, so its not totally the best thing it could've been, but I kinda like it, and everybody needs some soft feels after Endgame, so here you go.
> 
> I really love these two a lot. Their growth, individually and together, is so visceral and I mean not to be dramatic, but it's true.
> 
> I don't make a reference here about Peter finding her, or how long it took to do that or anything, which we don't know if he does or not yet anyways. Gotta wait for Vol. 3!!! So infer what you will where you need it and just enjoy this slice of life.

_ Dairy Queen, Missouri, 2023 _

 

“So...what’ll you have?”

The backlit menu stretches wide above them, and he gives a sweeping gesture like he might be showing her some uncharted region.

She stares upwards, and he’s suddenly aware of how her viridescent skin, markings, and purple hair contrast with the glow of the fluorescents and the drab, standardized, sticky decor around them.

It’s not like he really cares to give her unseemliness more than a passing thought, standing beside her in his greatcoat with blasters on either hip. It’s just that she’s beautiful...beautifully strange here, in his world. Well, what had been his world for his first twelve years.

Her gaze drifts to him, stoic to anyone who isn’t versed in her, but he sees a flash of discomfort ticking towards irritation.

He laughs a little—because this whole thing was silly, really, to bring an alien girl to a Terran fast food restaurant—and touches a hand to her back. (She’s finally gotten comfortable with his touch without him worrying about the wellbeing of the jewels).

“A cheeseburger is always a good place to start,” he says, hoping to set her at ease, and when she gives a terse nod of agreement, he steps up to the counter.

-

A breeze takes the corners of the wrappers of their burgers, flicks through the ends of her hair while she surveys the parking lot and the untouched field of sunflowers across the road.

Sitting outside was a little quieter, a little more intimate than sitting inside, plus less conspicuous, and he’s getting the feeling that being out of her element is grating on her.

He watches her carefully. More carefully than he would’ve...before. Than he would’ve when she was...her. 

It's different now because he knows her. Knows how to read her. Or at least he thinks he can. Hopes he can. 

He blinks away and takes another bite of his burger. He shakes his head and sets it aside.

“It’s not the same.”

She arches her brow.

“When my mom and I used to come here… It just doesn’t taste the same.” He shrugs.

She looks down at her untouched food.

He sighs and shifts in his chair. 

This was really stupid. Coming all this way. He thought it might be good. Might give them a change of scenery, a change of pace, a time to just unwind but neither one of them are of this place—anymore—and… He blinks hard at the thought that he’s losing her again.

“Hey, listen,” he starts and clears his throat. “I know its weird like… trying to figure out where you are and who you are and what the hell is going on.”

She blinks up at him, stone cold.

“I mean, I was...gone too. Felt like five minutes for me, but turns out it was five years.” He gives a shrug before stuffing his mouth full with fries. “A little weird to be thrown back into a world where Aretha Franklin and Burt Reynolds aren’t around anymore...but that kinda pales in comparison to half the population of Earth being wiped out, so ya know…”

She still looks unmoved, but tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. “Its strange...finding the place where she was…Where people want  _ me  _ to be, but I’m not. Not knowing if I even want to be there at all.”

Her gaze travels along the rickety metal table, to his hands, almost up to his face before she looks away again.

It’s something he’s never seen on her before, and it's certainly strange seeing it on a  _ past  _ her. A version of herself that is still hidden behind instincts and guards and proselytization.

He shakes his head and smiles at her, hoping it will help. “I don’t expect you to be anyone else other than who you are,” he says.

A smile pulls the corners of her mouth, just a little. Not really a smile so much as a nod of understanding. Of thankfulness.

He’s thankful too. Thankful he gets to fall in love with her twice. It’s different and it’s still right.

She looks out at the field again. A few cars drive past on the narrow road. Sunflowers bob in the breeze. There isn’t a cloud in the sky. Big, bright, blue and open.

“Its a pretty place,” she says. “Even if it isn’t the same.”

He smiles, tucking away the image of her there across from him at this horrible metal picnic table, sun in her hair and wistfulness in her eyes. 

“Yeah… Yeah it is.”


End file.
